Coast ★9.3

Coast: Oysters at the Centre of the Party

At Coast, the raw bar isn’t tucked in a corner — it’s a glowing circular island in the middle of the room, with shuckers working the ice while the crowd orbits with champagne. This is downtown Vancouver’s seafood house in party dress: bright, buzzy, unashamedly social, and stocked with the best of what British Columbia’s waters send in each morning.

The Concept

Coast is the seafood pillar of the Glowbal Restaurant Group, the family behind several of the city’s flashiest rooms. The mandate is simple: showcase BC’s fish and shellfish — sustainably sourced, prepared with more style than solemnity — in a space that treats dinner as a night out. Live sushi rolls out of the O-Lounge, towers rise from the ice, and the bar keeps the energy somewhere between restaurant and celebration.

What to Order

Start at the circular oyster bar with a dozen freshly shucked and something sparkling. The seafood towers — tiered monuments of lobster, prawns, crab and shellfish — are the room’s great theatre. From the kitchen: scallop ceviche, salmon poke, tuna gomae, marinated mussels and clams, Dungeness crab salad and a halibut the city rarely stops talking about. Sushi and sashimi run from the O-Lounge, and the wine list leans coastal and crisp.

The Space

Two light-filled levels wrapped around that centrepiece raw bar, with pale wood, white leather and a glow that flatters everyone in it. The volume rises with the evening — this is a room for conversation over the din, elbows on the table, one more round of oysters.

Who It’s For

Groups that want their seafood with sparkle, first dates hedging with oysters, after-work escalations, and visiting pescatarians who want one big BC seafood blowout in a single sitting.

Good to Know

Do I need a reservation? Evenings, yes — the room draws crowds from the surrounding luxury district.

What’s the centrepiece order? A seafood tower — built for sharing and impossible to ignore.

Is the seafood local? The menu leans hard on sustainably sourced BC fish and shellfish.

Where should oyster lovers sit? At the circular raw bar itself — the best seats in the house.

Anything for non-fish-eaters? Yes — steak and poultry options hold the line, though seafood is the point.

Opening hours